After the frantic, last-minute packing preparations that always precede my journeys and the hour of sleep followed by 12 hours and 688 miles of monotonous travel across Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, the second day was better, albeit longer, and we’re finally on Route 66. After staying the night in Dayton, OH, we crossed Indiana and Illinois in shorter order and stopped off at St. Louis to see the arch and grab some lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory.
(Click for larger images:)
What a funky welcoming committee!
The Gateway Arch, just as you’ve seen it in photos a million times before. Only this time it’s my photo :)
My Dad, master of the Arch!
The Arch is reeeeallly big!
Our next stop was Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard, a semi-famous mini chain out here. Their standard is the “concrete,” a cup of frozen custard mixed with any flavor you want. As for what frozen custard actually is, the best way I can describe it is to say that it’s like soft ice cream, except smoother and thicker. When they serve you the cup, they turn it upside down to show you it doesn’t fall out. So, I went for a regular raspberry concrete and it was delish. Sitting on a bench nearby, we enjoy our concretes and marvelled at the quantity of people passing through — its quite a popular place.
Our final sight-seeing stop for the day was Meramec Caverns, a 26-mile cavern system west of St. Louis. It was pretty cool, but not as impressive as I hoped and far too cheesy. They do an “impressive light and musical display” at the end of the tour that actually consists only of an old recording and the tour guide manually flicking a few lights on and off — the finale is what can be seen in this photo. I wasn’t surprised when I later saw a photo of the cave’s owner wearing a leopard pattern smoking jacket.
All the sight-seeing made for an even longer day yesterday, as we did the same amount of mileage in addition to the stops, but from here on out we’re only doing about 300 miles a day and more sightseeing. Today: Oklahoma and Texas!
Tags: Heavy Things, Life